There are times when the most dire and barren circumstances produce bountiful sources of inspiration. Dr. Merlin Antunez, a native Honduran, recalls the deaths of two of his siblings when they were barely toddlers. Acute poverty, with no access to medical care, was at the core of the children’s fate. And he recounts his father’s battle with Parkinson’s disease, which contributed to the demise of his parents’ marriage and left his father ill-equipped to care for his surviving children.